Like many. 2019 has been a bitch of a year. I’ve been behind the 8 Ball so much this year, and the last 3 months are no exception. But, I have been doing my duty and delivering the latest news from the digiwebs on First News 570 with Mark Starling, LIVE, each Thursday morning at 6:43am. You can always listen using the iHeart Radio app.

VIRUS LADEN LAPTOP BEING AUCTIONED FOR OVER 1 MILLION DOLLARS
The technology world can be wild and zany sometimes. If you’re in the market for a new laptop you can bid on a Samsung laptop that’s been purposefully infected with 6 viruses, two of which we’ve covered on First News 570. The auction is a performance art collaboration between artist Guo O Dong and New York Cybersecurity Company, Deep Instinct. The current bid is set at 1.1 million dollars and ends this coming Wednesday. Remember, it is illegal to sell malware for the purpose of causing damage in the United States.Read more

IN MOMENT OF EMBARRASSMENT, BALTIMORE IT IS BEING HELD HOSTAGE
It’s hard for me to report on this; especially, after we showcased Baltimore in a shining light for having the first organ transplant delivered by drone. Baltimore has had a tough year, two days after Mayor Jack Young took office after disgraced mayor Catherine Pugh, Baltimore’s IT networks were shutdown after being subjected to a ransomware attack. Analysts are predicting weeks before the city’s systems return to normal as water billing, payment systems, email, and the phone system remain offline. Baltimore also doesn’t have an insurance policy to cover ransomware attacks, which could have easily covered the $70,000 the attackers are demanding to have their systems returned to normal.Read more

I’m coming out of my cocoon from the first quarter of the year. Like many 2019-ers, it hasn’t been an easy start to the year. If it’s Thursday morning it’s time tech talk with Mark Starling and the First News 570 crew. We talk AI facials, data breaches, and meat this week. You can listen to us every Thursday morning at 6:43am, LIVE using the iHeart Radio app.

AI RESEARCHERS TELL AMAZON TO STOP SELLING ITS FACIAL RECOGNITION SOFTWARE
Amazon, that Amazon, has been encouraged to stop selling its facial recognition technology to police and other law enforcement agencies. In an open letter published online, researchers from Microsoft, Google, and Facebook have asked Amazon to stop selling Rekognition, its facial recognition technology because it has a higher error rate in identifying dark-skinned and women’s faces. 26 AI researchers have signed the letter citing the possibility of increased profiling and bias against minorities and women.Read more

ELIZABETH WARREN INTRODUCES BILL TO PUNISH TECH EXECS FOR MASSIVE DATA BREACHES AND SCAMS
Yesterday, US Senator Elizabeth Warren introduced a new bill that would make it easier to criminally charge technology executives when Americans’ data is compromised in security breaches. If the bill is approved it would make executives of companies that make $1 billion or more criminally negligent when Americans’ personal information is compromised. As much as I hate data breaches I’m not a fan of the law, and Warren even wants to break up the companies citing anti-trust law. Uhhhh, I think that’s a bit excessive.Elisabeth Warren Op-EdRead more

WILL SCREAMS WITH DELIGHT: HE MIGHT BE ABLE TO EAT A BURGER DURING LENT
Food innovation still counts as technology news!!! Earlier this week, Burger King announced that it will start selling a meat-free version of the Whopper! The burger will be made using Impossible Meat. The Impossible Whopper will start being sold in 59 Burger Kings around the St. Louis area. Supposedly, people can’t tell the difference even though the Impossible Whopper clocks in at 15% less fat and 90% less cholesterol, and 100% less beef than a standard Whopper. If the trial succeeds Burger King will sell the Impossible Whopper at all 7,200 outlets. BK has sold plant based burgers before, I’ve actually had their meatless burger and it’s pretty good.Read more

I’ve been spending my days, night, and weekends wrapping a project, but even though I haven’t been making updates, I’ve still been kicking it with Mark Starling and First News 570 each Thursday on the latest and great tech stories. This week was a busy one for tech and we talk about Apple’s new status symbol and show you glimpses of how AI will take over the galaxy.

WARNER MUSIC SIGNS RECORD DEAL WITH ALGORITHM
Yes, even little old me had to repeat this sensational title. WB didn’t actually sign a deal with an algorithm, but they did enter a record contract with Endel Music. Endel is an app that creates custom tracks to help people relax and operate under a better mood. The software layers ambient and white noise for individuals. Warner Brothers entered into a deal with Endel to create 600 short tracks to be added to 20 albums on streaming services. The tracks themselves were created at the click of a button and Endel will split 50/50 with WB on royalties. And…own their masters.Read more

IN PUSH TO DIGITIZE, ESTONIA CONSIDERS AI FOR JUDGMENTS
Everyone wants to see their day in court, but what if you get there and instead of a judge, you plead your case to a computer instead. Estonia may be quickly becoming the world’s fastest country to digitize and are now considering using AI to make judgments in small claims cases, those less than 8000 euro in value. The country has already installed system for e-filing taxes, drivers licenses, and more without leaving home. I don’t know I find some comfort in human fallibility and I think AI judges would not be a good thing for us all.Read more

HOW RACOON CITY STARTED: APPLE ANNOUNCES NEW STATUS SYMBOL
It’s true, we technologists really do think we can solve the world’s problems. And in a global economy that constantly pushes down the cost of human labor, humans will be turning to debt to buy almost anything. To speed on the coming apocalypse, Apple, the fruit company, has announced a titanium, with a ’T’, credit card. Apple’s credit card will have no late fees, annual fees, international fees, or over limit fees (how is this possible), and will be made out of titanium. Did I mention that? The card will not feature raised numbers, but only your name tastefully printed using a sans serif font. It will be the ultimate status symbol, I have no need for one but it looks cool. It sucks that Apple’s newest game plan is to push people into debt, I’d like to see how far it goes.Read more

We kick things off on this morning’s edition of First News on 570 with Russia unplugging from the Internet and a new device designed to help millennials further dull their communications skills.

If it’s Thursday, it’s time for Tech Talk with Mark Starling on First News 570. You can always listen LIVE at 643 am.

DOING SOMETHING I’VE BEEN WANTING TO DO FOR WEEKS, RUSSIA UNPLUGS
Russia is considering the possibility of unplugging itself from the Interwebs. That’s right. The Russian government is thinking about performing a nationwide test in which the country will be disconnected from the greater Internet. This means messages and traffic can only be passed internal to the country. The test is to insure that ISPs can function in case a hostile government (not the US) were to perform cyberwarfare against the nation. The test is scheduled to take place on April 1st, hahaha, with no duration time period.https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-47198426

JUST IN TIME FOR VALENTINES DAY, LOVESYNC
This story is what I live for. I was going to talk about a ridiculous bed Ford wants to make to keep bed hoggers on their side, but instead I’m going to talk about another way millennials suck. Millennials continue to ruin many social norms, and their latest fail includes conversations around sex. It’s known that millennials have less sex overall than their generational forebears and one reason why is because they don’t know how to communicate. Well, enter, LoveSync, a button that allows partners to tell each other their interested in having sex without telling their partners their interested in having sex. Basically works in pairs. Two buttons are synced together and if you press your and your partner does you can have sex. There’s also a 4 second cancel option if you change your mind. Meanwhile, my wife and I have a simple voice activated system that doesn’t need battery power. Unless, we need battery power.Read more

OPPORTUNITY IS LOST
The Mars rover, Opportunity, sent its last signal this last Tuesday night. The Mars rover was roaming the planet for over 15 years before it just simply stopped transmitting. In the spirit of saying goodbye to a long lost friend, the NASA ground crew on Earth transmitted the Billie Holliday song, “I’ll Be Seeing You” to the rover via the Deep Space Network. The scientists here waited to hear a response from Opportunity but only silence was returned. Opportunity outlasted its partner, another rover, Spirit for another 9 years. But alas, Mars is harsh environment, and this rover lasted longer than we expected.Read more

UK POLICE GET SERIOUS ABOUT SECURITY FORCING PEOPLE TO SUBMIT TO FACIALS
I was planning to be a little more cheery this week on FNO570, but I need to start with some Person of Interest-esque intrigue. We first reported on the UK facial recognition system before it went into operation last Spring. The system is now in operation and the UK has arrested at least one person who was trying to not be recognized by covering his face with his hoodie. Police stopped the man and questioned him, he told the cops to “piss off” a British cursing colloquialism and the police fined the man 90 pounds for public cursing. We are consistently deploying cameras everywhere and ultimately we’ll be surrounding public privacy in the name of safety. It’s only a matter time before we get this tech stateside.Read more

PRIVACY MIGHT BE AN ILLUSION, BUT SECURITY IS NO JOKE
It’s cold up in Canada right now, and if you’re an investor of the QuadrigaCX, Canada’s largest cryptoechange, you’ve been iced out of your virtual funds. The exchange’s founder, Gerald Cotton, died last year and is the only known person who knew the password. The crypto funds are stored in something called, digital Cold Storage. These are virtual vaults with only one password. And in this case, Cotton had the stuff. It is true, crypto-currency thefts have increased dramatically and last year thefts hit $1.7 billion in thefts which is up 400% from the previous year. The moral of the story. You have to trust someone. Quadriga has hired a ringer to attempt to crack the code, but we’ll wait and see. Meanwhile, Quadriga has filed for creditor protection to keep them from getting sued. Also, meanwhile, some people suspect…that Gerald Cotton may not be dead. Despite the death certificate.Read more

NOW THE DISABLED CAN COMMUNICATE IN SHORTHAND WITH APPROVED EMOJIS
A total of 230 new emojis have been added to the Unicode set of emojis people can use to communicate on their smartphones. The changes came after Apple complained that the current emoji set doesn’t speak to the experiences of the disabled. The new set of emojis include wheelchairs, prosthetic limbs, canes, guide dogs, and yes, a drop of menstrual blood. The biggest or most controversial addition is the depiction of a woman on her period. The original drawing included a pair of pants marked by blood but was rejected, resulting in the drop of period of blood being used in the future. These updates should arrive in your tech this March.Read more

This year, Mark Starling and the crew at First News 570 asked me to share it on the air for iHeartRadio listeners. It’s 2018, and we featured not one, but two, women’s power tools for the list. You can always listen LIVE each Thursday at 6:43am. These are small sample of this year’s gift ideas. For more ideas, check out my Pinterest list.

RYLO 360 Degree Camera
Leading things off is the RYLO pocket camera is a tiny, but powerful 360 degree camera made by America’s company RYLO. You can shoot, edit, and share using your smartphone paired with the camera and capture your world around you. At $500 it’s a steal of a device for its capability.

Philips Hue Starter
One of the coolest things you could do in your home is to add a little automation to the joint. Phillips Hue comes with a hub and a few smart bulbs that allow you to control light levels with your smart phone. If you get some color bulbs and pair this setup with an Amazon Echo big one, you’ve just opened yourself up to mood scenes (my Sexy Time scene is a favorite) and voice activated lighting. George Jetson would be proud.

Tesla Model 3
Lexus and Mercedes Benz dominate the Christmas commercial wars every year. If you’re really going to by that special someone a car, don’t give them a bill for the rest of their life buying expensive gasoline. Give them an echo friendly vehicle that’s electric. Affordable at $35k, the Model 3 has a range of 310 miles and looks good doing it.

Kano Computer Kit Complete
The Kano makes this year’s gift guide. I picked up one of these last year for my oldest to build her own PC. If you’re considering this device, spring for the complete kit for $299. It’ll include the monitor and you won’t have issues getting output from the machine to your HDMI monitor. If your young one is a tinkerer and into tech, it makes a great gift.

This morning was the AI show on this week’s tech tag up on First News 570 with Mark Starling. We’re getting closer to Christmas and so far, the only thing I’ve gotten is a pair of fancy drawls for my wife. We talk about AI, my lack of ordering online, and regifting this week on First News 570. You can always listen LIVE on Thursdays at 6:43 am.

SOPHIA THE ROBOT WANTS A BABY
Last year, we reported about Sophia the Robot. Sophia is the world’s first robotic citizen. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has granted her full citizenship with all rights and duties. What we didn’t report on after the breaking news, was that Sophia the Robot wants a baby. We decided to start this week’s tech tag up with this story, because it’s laced with AI. I don’t know how or why Sophia’s neural networks want the baby, but here we are. In related news, the robot creator also wants to make a baby with his bot!Read more

AFTER BANNING ADULT CONTENT TUMBLR ALGOS BAN ALL CONTENT
It’s been a not so secret that if you wanted to peruse indie adult, sexual content, the social network to peruse was Tumblr. Facing a ban from the Apple App Store and increased scrutiny from anyone who wasn’t using Tumblr, the social network, Tumblr decided to ban all sexual content from its platform. They’re enforcing the ban, pretty poorly, using AI algorithms. The algorithms aren’t working properly in that they are banning anime clips, images featuring people of color, and some of Tumblr’s own content. It just goes to show, human moderators are still better than the machines they are being replaced with.Read more

FACEBOOK DUST WITHOUT AI
Yann LeCun, founder and top AI researcher of Facebook has reportedly said the company would be dust without artificial intelligence. AI technology is now being used in Facebook posts, language translation, and ad placement. Facebook has been using AI since 2013 and LeCun has said that the social network couldn’t function today without it, since it is virtually everywhere. So maybe, just maybe, Facebook isn’t listening, maybe their machine algorithms are just that good.Read more

Yesterday, I dressed as an angelic cherub, a servant of goodness, but no one bought it. No one really thinks I’m an angel despite all the goodness and caring I spread through out the world. And in that spirit, I’ll be sharing these tech stories with you and the crew at First News 570 with Mark Starling. If it’s Thursday, it’s time for tech talk with Mark. Listen LIVE.

IN SIGN O’ THE TIMES, APPLE RELEASES DRUNK EMOJI
Sometimes, I can’t believe I’m reporting on a story. Last week, I truly, truly didn’t want to report on President Donald Trump’s unsecured iPhone. This week, I don’t want to, but have to report on…Woozy Face. Technically known as, Face With Uneven Eyes and Wavy Mouth, Woozy Face is the 5th newest emoji to be released in Apple’s iOS 12.1 update. This is the emoji of the drunk uncle. He’ll pick you up at 2am in the morning, but you’ll have to drive yourself back home, because he’s drunk.Read more

NEW ATTACKS ON US INTERNET COMPANIES WITH TAX WEAPONS
The UK government is considering new tax plans that seek to collect 2% of revenues from sales made by large Internet companies. Similar to the EU’s 3% tax on Internet companies with global revenues greater than 750 euros, the UK plan is squarely aimed at collecting some form of revenue back from US internet companies. Economists are against these plans because they basically function as a tariff, but admittedly it’s understandable how European countries feel stung because US companies dominate the space. I’d to say it, but we did invent the Internet. We are just good at it.Read more

APPLE ANNOUNCES NEW EXPENSIVE STUFFS IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS
This past Tuesday Apple announced a new iPad Pro with specs approaching a console gaming rig and a new MacBook Air. The new iPad Pro is 5.9mm thick, which is 15% thinner than the previous version and comes in an 11inch and 12.9 inch versions. It also has a display with resolutions approaching an Xbox. The MacBook Air weighs in at just 2.75 points but is 200$ more expensive. In about time moment, Apple also has release a new Mac Mini with a quad core processor just in time for Christmas. All of this gear is ridiculous priced, the MacBook Pro I spec’d topped out at $3,200. I just can’t.Read more

The last several weeks have been challenging. I like October, but when Venus is in retrograde it can be difficult. It was hard to narrow down this week’s tech stories, but here’s what we talked about on First News 570 with Mark Starling. You can listen LIVE every Thursday at 6:43am Eastern.

APPLE, SAMSUNG: FINED FOR SLOW PHONES
An Italian government regulatory body has fined Apple and Samsung for shipping customers “slow” phones and unfair commercial practices. The Italian government cited Apple and Samsung for shipping software updates that cause “serious malfunctions and reduce performance” of older devices. The suspicion came when Apple admitted to slowing down the performance of older phones through updates to iOS because of diminishing battery performance. Samsung plans to appeal their fine because they’ve always reduced software updates that deliver the best performance possible. This fine comes at the same time the French government is investigating Apple for the planned obsolescence of iPhones.Read more

TIM COOK ASKS FOR FEDERAL PRIVACY LAW BEFORE DATA INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX WEAPONIZES DATA AGAINST US
In what is absolutely stunning, Apple CEO Tim Cook called for a federal law that protects user and consumer data from being hoarded by technology companies and then sold on. Cook said that our own personal data is weaponized against us because Internet companies know more about us than ourselves, and then companies turn around to sell the data to third parties. Personally, I think Cook and Co. are being disingenuous and are lobbying for a law that works in their favor. GPDR has been tough for some tech companies to implement and is seen as a strike against US tech company dominance. Facebook and Google both want to join in. It also seems like these companies are fine with making it harder for smaller companies to collect data that can be competitively used while the big have had their fun and don’t anyone else to use these tools.Read more

I WISH I DIDN’T HAVE TO REPORT THE PRESIDENT USES AN UNSECURE PHONE
The New York Times has reported that President Donald Trump uses a personal iPhone to call friends, business partners, and confidants while in the White House. The Times has cited American intelligence reports which have said aides have tried to curb the presidents use of his personal iPhone. US intelligence believes Russian and Chinese intelligence agencies have exploited the phone and are eavesdropping on the president’s phone calls. The main goal is to influence the president by knowing what he talks about and sending in policy makers who are for their goals. Well, that’s not too difficult.Read more

If it’s Thursday it means tech time with Mark Starling and the crew at First News 570. This week, we talk about AIs that discriminate, Twitter acknowledging Russian meddling two years, too late, and the technology industry’s latest ridiculous gadget. You can always listen LIVE to me and Mark each Thursday at 6:43 am Eastern.

We gon’ whoop that ass…

NOT SURPRISING ANYONE AT ALL, AMAZON AI IMMEDIATELY DISCRIMINATES AGAINST WOMEN
People might not think so, but the people who are writing the algorithms truly make a difference. AIs should not be allowed to make human decisions. That needs to be repeated. AIs should not be allowed to make human decisions. Amazon gave artificial intelligence a try by using a program to assist in rating job candidates. Last year, the stopped using the tool because it was discriminating against women. There are no silver bullets. Amazon thought they could build a tool that would sift through a hundred resumes and hire the top 5. The problem? Amazon tuned the AI to prefer candidates based upon the past batch of successfully hired candidates. Candidates who are mostly male, and probably mostly white. Amazon created an AI that trained itself to prefer male candidates. To me, that doesn’t sound like artificial intelligence.Read more

A DAY LATE AND A DOLLAR SHORT: TWITTER PUBLISHES RUSSIAN AND IRAN TROLLING
First, I think social media sucks and its hard for me to state its a public good. And yes, I know I’m tweeting the link to this article. I don’t know if I should be hard on the Internet public for being so gullible, or the social networks for giving dog whistles and bull horns to any nutter, state, or troll who can type. Twitter published 360GB of tweets from Russian and Iranian, state-sponsored troll farms that are suspected of meddling with the 2016 US election and Brexit. Twitter shared more than 10 million tweets so that researchers can study how the platform has been used to influence the public. The numbers are truly interesting. 4,570 accounts were involved with the trolling. Everyone was duped. Trump supporters, Hillary supporters, Black Lives Matter supporters…humans will never learn. Any meaningful information published on the Internet isn’t sensational enough for the public to consume.Read more

IF IT WORKS FOR HORSES IT CAN WORK FOR HUMANS PANASONIC MAKES BLINDERS
It’s true, it’s true it can be hard to concentrate at some times. Because humans can’t block out the outside world, and other humans can’t help but tap you on the shoulder, Panasonic has unofficially launched a crowd sourcing campaign to make human blinders, similar to the ones used on horses to keep them on track. Panasonic’s ‘Wear Space’ product consists of a wrap around fabric material that houses Bluetooth headphones. Wear Space blocks 60% of the wearers field of vision, helping the user to keep their shifty eyes inside and the embarrassingly large fabric device communicates to the outside world, “I’m a dweeb who doesn’t have enough control to stay focused. LEAVE ME ALONE.”Read more